The annual TOLLIVER family reunion is scheduled for June
26-27, 2009, at the Carl D. Perkins Community Center in Morehead, KY. All
TOLLIVER/TOLIVER descendants are invited to attend. Opportunities will abound
for exchanging family information and for copying photographs with the use of a
digital camera. Other activities will include a family talent show, which will
include bluegrass and gospel music; a pot luck lunch; a silent auction to raise
money to support the annual reunion; and a project to collect family recipes and
stories for publication. Interested individuals may also want to check out the
website at www.tolliverfamily.com.
For more information about the reunion, get in touch with Emma Lee and Bill
Tolliver, 472 E. Torrence Rd., Columbus, OH 43214 (phone 614-267-6556; cell
614-620-6556; e-mail ELTI000@aol.com) or Dr. J. D. Reeder, 121 Blackberry,
Morehead, KY 40351 (phone 606-784-5669; e-mail:jdreeder2003@yahoo.com.)

Family researchers are always
seeking the names of libraries, archives, and educational institutions that may
have data useful in discovering more about their ancestors, the way they lived,
and their role in history. Many genealogists may find resources they previously
overlooked in the Winter 2008 (Vol. 47, No. 1) issue of the quarterly,
Journal of the West. The issue focuses on various collections pertaining to
the American West. Included are the Western History and Genealogy Department at
the Denver Public Library, the American Heritage Center at the University of
Wyoming, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, the
Autry National Center, the Western Americana Collection in the DeGolyer Library
at Southern Methodist University, Special Collections at the St. Louis
Mercantile Library, the Western History Collections at the University of
Oklahoma, the Special Collections Department in the library at the University of
Utah, the Bancroft Collection of Western Americana at the University of
California in Berkeley, the Western Americana Collection in the Huntington
Library, the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico, and
the Archives and Special Collections (which includes the Labriola National
American Indian Data Center Collection) at Arizona State University.

Charles N. Ferguson, 811 South
Market, Shawnee, OK 74801 is seeking the names of the parents and siblings and
the date and place of death for John SMITH, born in 1835 in Missouri, who
married Mary GRACE on 17 April 1859 in Hopkins Co., TX. Mary was born in 1837 in
Tennessee. Did John go to the Civil War from Hopkins County? Was he killed in
service? Ferguson cannot find John or Mary SMITH on the 1870 Texas census. One
known son was Charley Austin SMITH, born in June 1861 in Texas and died in 1935
in McCurtain Co., OK.

Below is a selected item from the 7
Aug 1908 issue of the Dallas Semi-Weekly Farm News, published in Dallas,
TX. Dated August 4, the information concerns a death in El Paso, TX. Surnames
are capitalized for emphasis.

"Olin McCHESNEY, plumber, was
suffocated with gas this afternoon while piping the residence of M. ESTES, 1211
Wyoming street. The plumber attempted to connect a gas pipe without turning off
the gas, thinking he could make the connections before any amount of gas
escaped. He was working in the cellar, failed to make the connection and was
overcome. He died in a very few minutes."

The marriage notice below can be
found in the 25 March 1836 (Vol. 6, No. 630) issue of the newspaper, Albany
Journal, published in Albany, NY. Page 3, column 7 - "Last evening, by the
Rev. Mr. MEEKER, Mr. John SPERRY, to Miss Anna REED, both of this city."